Club wants fencing fixed

THREE wheelspin attacks in just over a week at Rushforth Park, South Grafton, has the soccer fraternity frustrated at the broken fencing which it says Clarence Valley Council has ignored for years.

Super Oldies Soccer president Michael Woodward said a car entered the fields overnight on Wednesday and damaged the fields either side of the main field (which was padlocked).

“There's a lot more donuts but they're not as deep,” he said.

Council's deputy general manager Des Schroder said yesterday the white timber fence was repaired by council staff but Mr Woodward said this was not the case.

“No, it hasn't been repaired for years, despite us asking for it to be fixed over and over again,” Mr Woodward said.

Mr Schroder said earlier that council would look at getting the fence fixed shortly.

“But we do have an open space budget problem so there is no guarantees,” he said.

“If it's been repaired and is now broken it begs the question: ‘Is it up to the job'.”

He said ideally a fence like the one around Fisher Park would be good for all fields in the Valley but that had taken a lot of effort in fundraising and grant applications, which was not realistic for every ground.

He said council spent $1.6 million on sporting grounds every year and collected about $80,000 in maintenance fees.

Council staff, he said, tended to spend all summer mowing fields, with maintenance more of a winter occupation.

Mr Woodward said there were just too many gaps in the Rushforth Park fence at present, but the repair would be cheap and simple.

“All you'd need is three to four railings and about five posts,” he said.